


Hurricane

by Daisy_Rivers



Series: Meant to Be [5]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Best Friends, Childhood Friends, F/M, Growing Up Together, Hurricane, Intense Relationship, M/M, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, OT3, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 15:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18702796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daisy_Rivers/pseuds/Daisy_Rivers
Summary: John tells Alex and Eliza something. Eliza has to go back to Albany. Catherine is a little concerned. John and Alex face a hurricane. Alex is afraid of thunder.





	Hurricane

Alex’s room was next to John’s, but it wasn’t furnished in the same way. It had originally been set up as a home office/guest room, with lots of bookshelves and a couch that unfolded to make a bed. When Henry and Rachel had moved into the house with the boys, they hadn’t been sure how things would go. As it turned out, John and Alex, along with the middle Schuyler girl, were inseparable, and now, with Eleanor asking for a divorce, it looked like they’d be here for quite a while. Nobody had bothered getting Alex any actual bedroom furniture, but he seemed fine with what he had. He loved books, so the shelves were rapidly filling up, and the sofa bed was quite comfortable.

The children were eight now, spending their third summer together, swimming, lying in the sun, and just talking with one another. The beach was separated from the houses by a wide area of sand dunes covered with sea grass, and they had found a special place where there was a deep hollow between dunes. The grass grew high, and when they were there, they were invisible from both the beach and the houses.

“My mom and dad are getting a divorce,” John announced bluntly, tracing random lines in the sand with his finger.

Eliza threw her arms around him. “That’s so sad,” she said.

John shrugged. “Nah, it’s okay. I never see my mom anyway.”

“Why not?” Alex asked.

John shrugged again. “My mom is … like, she’s always busy with stuff, so even when we lived there, I almost never saw her.”

Eliza frowned. “Do you talk to her on the phone?”

“No, not really. Just on Christmas and my birthday.”

Eliza had parents and two sisters who loved her. She had a hard time imagining what John’s mother might be like. She turned to Alex, thinking he might be an ally for John. “Alex, are your mom and dad divorced?”

Alex stared fixedly at a shell he was holding. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t _know?_ ”

“I just know my dad went away a long time ago. I don’t remember him.”

Eliza’s eyes filled with tears. She reached out and took their hands. “I’m really sorry for both of you.”

John and Alex looked at each other. “It’s not that big a deal,” John said. “I like living here a lot better than living in Charleston. And my dad doesn’t yell. He used to yell a lot when we lived with my mom.”

“Yeah, it’s okay, really,” Alex agreed. “I’m fine with just my mom. It was always just me and my mom until Mom started working for Henry, but now it’s better, because I live in the same house as John, and you’re right next door.”

Eliza nodded thoughtfully. “I’m glad about that part. I would miss my mom or my dad, though, if they got divorced.”

“Well, they’re probably not going to. They don’t fight a lot, do they?”

She shook her head. “Hardly ever. And they kiss and stuff.”

“That’s good, then,” John said. He drew in the sand some more, biting his lip. “I’m glad, really. I would hate to move back to Charleston.”

Eliza patted his hand. “We’d hate it too, wouldn’t we, Alex?”

Alex could only nod in agreement. After more than two years of living in the same house as John, he couldn’t imagine being separated from him. He knew that for now, at least, they only had Eliza for the summers, but John – John was there always.

Eliza told her parents at dinner that night.

Catherine sighed and exchanged looks with her husband. “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. How’s John?”

“He’s okay,” Eliza said. “He likes living here better than he liked living in Charleston.”

“Doesn’t he miss his mom?” Peggy asked. She was only six, and she couldn’t imagine her mother living somewhere else.

Eliza wrinkled her nose in thought. “I don’t think so.”

“John and Alex seem to be fine,” Philip said, although Eliza didn’t understand why he was talking about Alex.

“Almost like brothers – well, stepbrothers,” Catherine added, giving her husband another one of those meaningful grown-up looks.

“Ew, no,” Eliza giggled. “They’re not brothers, they’re best friends. We’re all best friends.”

*          *          *          *          *

School started in Albany right after Labor Day, so the Schuylers left on the last day of August. John and Alex held onto Eliza until the last possible minute, when Philip had to gently pull his sobbing daughter away from the two teary-eyed boys and put her in the back seat. Exhausted, she soon fell asleep, and after a while, Philip checked the rear view mirror to see that all three girls were napping.

“Cath, what do you think about this ‘best friends’ thing with Eliza and the boys?”

Catherine raised her hands helplessly and let them fall back into her lap. “I don’t know. I mean, I can’t put my finger on anything I object to. They’re nice kids, and it’s not like they’re doing anything wrong. It’s just that they seem to need to be together every minute.”

Philp nodded. “That’s what I mean. It seems like a very … intense friendship for kids that age.”

“I agree, but what could we do? Can you imagine telling her that she had to spend less time with them? Especially if we couldn’t give her any better reason than that she was spending a lot of time with them.”

“What do you think about maybe spending next summer somewhere else? The Catskills, maybe, or the Poconos?”

“Oh, Philip, no! It’s beautiful here, and all the girls love it. I do too. And surely we don’t want to change vacation plans just because Eliza is attached to her friends.”

Philp nodded. “You’re right, I suppose. It was just a thought.”

“I had a thought myself,” Catherine said.

“What’s that?”

“The rental agent told me that the owners are thinking of selling, and he wanted to know if we might be interested in buying the house.”

“Did he now? And what did you tell him?”

“I told him to call us the minute it went on the market.”

*          *          *          *          *

This was the third time John and Alex had had to say goodbye to Eliza, and it seemed to get harder every time. They still communicated with her, of course. They Facetimed as often as they could, and sometimes they would send her a paper letter with one of John’s drawings in it. It wasn’t the same as being together, but they made do.

Toward the end of September, they heard people talking about a big hurricane that was headed toward the South Carolina coast. Alex had vague frightening memories of being in a hurricane when he was very small, and he didn’t like thinking about one coming near them. John turned the TV in his room to the Weather Channel.

“Why don’t we just ask your dad?” Alex wanted to know, eyeing the complicated weather maps on the TV warily.

“Because he won’t tell us everything,” John said. “He’ll think it’s too scary.”

Alex was sitting on the floor with his arms around his knees. “He might be right.”

“It’s only a Category Two,” John told him.

“Right now, but it could get bigger.”

John sat down next to him, close enough that they were touching. “Are you scared?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

John threw an arm over his shoulders. “I’ve been through hurricanes before. It’s just a lot of wind and rain.”

Alex didn’t say anything, just chewed on his lip. The weatherman on TV was showing different paths that Hurricane Lydia might take. One of them would hit them head-on. Alex scrunched closer to John. “There was a hurricane when I was little,” he said softly. “When we lived in Florida.”

“Was it bad?”

Alex nodded, still biting his lip, frowning, trying to remember the details. “I think it blew our roof off.”

John’s eyes went wide. “Oh, shit,” he said.

Alex started laughing because John wasn’t supposed to say that, but he felt a little better.

“Listen,” John told him, “even if it hits here, we’ll be fine. All the beach houses have to be built to withstand high winds and tides.”

“Okay.”

John’s arm tightened around him, and Alex put his head on John’s shoulder. The closer he was to John, the safer he felt.

*          *          *          *          *

The hurricane didn’t hit directly, but it came close, and school was cancelled. By noon, the winds were blowing hard, and from the second-story windows, they could see how rough the ocean was. Henry and Rachel told them not to worry, that everything would be fine, but Alex knew that grown-ups always said that, even if it wasn’t true. He had a little more faith in the Weather Channel, but they talked about things like barometric pressure that he really didn’t understand, so he just paced around. Finally, John grabbed his hand. “Let’s go see it,” he said.

Alex stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “What?”

“The hurricane. Let’s go down to the beach and watch it.” John’s eyes were bright with excitement.

“Are you _crazy?_ ” Alex asked. “They just said the winds could be a hundred miles an hour.”

“Not here,” John told him. “That’s out at sea, where the center of the storm is. Come on.”

“Your dad will …”

“We’re not gonna tell him. Come _on!_ ” John pulled him down the stairs and into the kitchen. Henry and Rachel, watching TV in the living room, didn’t see them, and John opened the back door very carefully, knowing the wind could catch it. It did, and almost tore it out of his grasp, but he held on tight. The wind hit them the instant they were outside, blowing sand into their faces. It stung like thousands of tiny bees, and Alex clutched John’s hand and tried to keep his head down. John had to shout to be heard above the wind and the pounding of the surf. “Let’s go look at the ocean!”

They had to climb over the dunes to get to the beach, and what usually took only a few minutes became a challenging trek. The blowing sand was worse, and the sea grass slapped their legs like whips. Before they even got over the dunes, salt spray was blowing into their faces, and the roar of the ocean was louder. They slid down the last dune on their butts and landed on the damp sand of the beach. They were more sheltered here with the dunes at their back, and the wet sand wasn’t blown in the wind. Alex was still holding onto John, but he rubbed the sand out of his eyes with his other hand and stood stock still, staring out at the ocean. It had none of its usual blues and greens today. Instead, it was the dull gray color of pewter, with soapy white foam in ragged lines. The waves came roaring in, tall enough to knock them down if they got closer, sounding like a freight train. Alex looked at John, who was gazing at the breakers as if he were hypnotized. He turned to Alex, his face lit with a brilliant smile. “Isn’t it amazing?” he asked. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Alex looked back at the crashing surf, trying to see it through John’s eyes. Yeah, maybe it was amazing, seeing the ocean that he thought he knew so well transformed into this powerful force. He caught a little of John’s excitement and turned straight into the wind, letting the spray hit his face. They were both soaked now, but it didn’t matter. He stuck his tongue out. “The air tastes like salt,” he said.

John laughed and licked his lips, looking out to sea for the horizon. “The ocean’s mixed up with the sky. We could swim in the air or breathe the water right now.”

“You really are crazy,” Alex told him.

“I don’t care! We’re in a hurricane! We’re right in it!” He spun around, pulling Alex with him, and a wave swept over them, knocking them down.

“Tide’s coming in!” Alex yelled, spitting out salt water and sand. He staggered to his feet, pulling John with him. “Come on!”

John took one last look at the thundering waves and then followed Alex as he scrambled up the dune. The blowing dry sand hit them again, stinging and blinding them. “The wind’s stronger,” John said, as if it wasn’t obvious. They made it to the back door, clung to it so the wind couldn’t pull it away from them, and then into the kitchen, where the sudden quiet was startling. They waited for a minute to be sure Henry and Rachel were still watching TV, and then crept carefully up the stairs and tumbled into John’s room.

“That was amazing!” John said, dancing around in circles. “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, it was,” Alex agreed, but he didn’t feel the same excitement as John. It had definitely been thrilling, and he wasn’t sorry they’d gone, but he knew it had been dangerous. John liked that, liked being on the edge of danger. He was exhilarated by it. Alex wasn’t. He was glad to be inside the house now. He smiled and tugged on one of John’s curls. “You should get a shower,” he said. “There’s about a pound of sand in your hair.”

“Really?” John ran his fingers through his hair and felt the grit. “Oh, wow. Okay, I’ll get a shower first.” He kicked off his wet shoes and headed to the bathroom.

Alex sat by the window, listening to the wind and the ocean. It wasn’t as scary to him as it had been before. Maybe going out in it had been good in that way. He didn’t like being close to danger, but maybe once he had done it, he wasn’t as afraid.

John came back wrapped in a towel, his curls a tangled mess. “We’re going to have to sneak into the laundry room tomorrow and wash our clothes,” he said.

Alex nodded. “I figured.” He stared at John, who was still glowing with excitement, his eyes bright and his face flushed. Without thinking, he reached for him and touched his face gently. John went still and smiled at him, not startled or embarrassed. “You’re pretty,” Alex whispered.

John’s smile didn’t change, and his green-gold eyes met Alex’s dark brown ones. He put his hand over Alex’s and held it against his cheek for a minute and then let go.

Alex stood under the hot shower, washing the sand out of his hair and wondering why people only said girls were pretty. Of course, Eliza was pretty, but John was pretty too. He wondered if they thought he was pretty.

He was tired, so he put his pajamas on and went to bed. He went to sleep, but woke up a few hours later when the thunder started. He hated thunder. He sat up in bed, wishing it would stop, but it kept going, getting louder. He finally got up and quietly went to John’s room.

“John,” he whispered.

The thunder must have woken him too. “I’m right here,” he said.

“I don’t like thunder,” Alex told him.

“I know. You want to sleep with me?”

“Yeah.”

Alex crawled into John’s bed and snuggled up against him, and all the tension went out of him in a long sigh. John put his arms around him and held him close, and there was nothing in the world to be afraid of.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for kudos and comments for this series. I love to hear what you think. If you're following this series, come see me on tumblr. I'm @daisy-rivers, and sometimes I post photosets and other things about my fanfics over there.


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